Former FBI Cyber Deputy Director warns letting FISA 702 lapse would create gaps adversaries are ready to exploit. Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/fbi-fisa-section-702

As missile threats shift over the North Pole, Greenland's location could make it central to U.S. defense. A look at why the Arctic is becoming a strategic frontier. Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/greenland-golden-dome

Iran isn’t seeing Russia’s war as a failure - it’s seeing a roadmap.

From drones to sanctions survival to internal repression, Tehran may be learning how to endure & win.

That should worry Washington.

Read more: www.thecipherbrief.com/iran-learning-from-russi...

Former NSA cybersecurity director Rob Joyce argues Section 702 is indispensable to U.S. national security.

Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/case-for-reauthorizing-s...

Is the U.S. lagging when it comes to drone warfare superiority? After years of observing from afar, the U.S. is now confronting the economic and operational realities of drone warfare in real time.

The U.S. entered its first real drone war - and paid the price.

$5.6B spent in 2 days.
850+ Tomahawks in 5 weeks.
All to stop drones costing ~$20K.

Meanwhile, Ukraine, Russia & Iran are producing drones at scale.

The war in Iran isn’t just about Tehran — it’s disrupting China’s global strategy. From Belt & Road routes to military cooperation, the ripple effects could reshape great power competition. Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/iran-china-great-power-c...

In a new Iron Triangle piece, Joey Gagnard argues the Pentagon’s drone ambitions are exposing dangerous weaknesses in America’s supply chain, manufacturing base, and long-term defense readiness. Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/americas-drone-strategy-...

Drones have turned the surface into a kill zone. Steve Blank argues the U.S. is investing in shooting them down, but not in protecting what matters most. Time to go underground. Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/drones-changing-warfare

Former senior CIA officer William Usher examines how the Iran war is triggering second- and third-order effects far beyond the Gulf.
Read more. www.thecipherbrief.com/iran-war-reordering-the-...

U.S. intelligence had a warning before the first bomb fell:

Iran’s regime was unlikely to collapse.

Four weeks later, that assessment looks increasingly accurate. www.thecipherbrief.com/sobering-assessment-of-i...

While Washington focuses on Iran, Moscow and Beijing are playing the long game.
Dave Pitts explains how both are turning conflict into strategic advantage.

Read more:
#NationalSecurity #China #Russia
www.thecipherbrief.com/russia-and-china-see-str...

The Chalk Mark Still Matters: Russian Espionage Handling in the Modern Era From dead drops and surveillance routes to covert digital communications, Russian espionage tradecraft remains disciplined, adaptive, and deeply relevant today.

Russia’s spy playbook never went away - it evolved. From chalk marks and dead drops to encrypted “spets-svyaz,” adversaries are operating in plain sight across NATO nations. The signals are subtle. The threat is not. Vigilance is no longer optional.

Read more. Stay ahead. Become a Subscriber+.

Blockade by Permission: How Iran Determines Who Gets Through Hormuz For roughly two weeks, the Karachi, a Pakistani-flagged Aframax tanker loaded with crude at Das Island in Abu Dhabi, sat waiting for a signal that never came through official channels. When it finally moved, it did not take the standard shipping lane.

Iran isn’t closing the Strait of Hormuz - it’s controlling it.

A new “permission economy” is emerging, where Tehran decides which ships pass and which don’t - reshaping global energy flows, alliances, and risk calculations in real time.

Read more:

A potential U.S. operation inside Iran.
Russia allegedly helping Tehran target U.S. assets.
A shift on Cuba sanctions.
And NASA’s moon mission getting real. www.thecipherbrief.com/report/global-intelligen...

From Kyiv’s Skies to the Persian Gulf: How Ukraine’s Drone Technology Is Reshaping Global Defense As Iranian drone swarms expose the limits of traditional air defenses, Ukrainian companies are offering low-cost interceptor systems refined through years of real combat.

Ukraine turned necessity into innovation - and now the world is paying attention.
Battle-tested, low-cost drone tech is exposing the limits of billion-dollar defense systems and reshaping how wars are fought.

From Kyiv to the Gulf, the future of air defense is already here.

Read more ⬇️

Trump Is Getting His Way in Caracas — But It’s Complicated In 2017, Marco Rubio, then Florida’s junior senator, was assigned a Capitol Police security detail because the U.S. received unverified but alarming intelligence that Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro’s feared chief enforcer was sending a hit man to assassinate him.

A deal with the devil?
The U.S. is working with figures it once targeted to stabilize Venezuela after Maduro’s removal - betting on short-term control while deeper threats linger.
How risky is the strategy?
Read more ⬇️
#NationalSecurity #Venezuela #Geopolitics

Adversaries don’t need to outbuild the U.S. they just need to exploit its internal weaknesses.
A new perspective on national security. www.thecipherbrief.com/national-security-starts...

The goal isn’t to convince you what’s true.
It’s to make you believe nothing is. www.thecipherbrief.com/when-deepfakes-become-do...

From the Suez Crisis to Iraq to today, NATO has faced deeper divisions—and endured.
Why today’s tensions may signal evolution, not collapse.
Read more. #Defense #Transatlantic www.thecipherbrief.com/natos-fractures-not-its-...

Zelensky Plays His Hand Ukraine’s battlefield innovation is becoming geopolitical currency, as Kyiv trades counter-drone expertise for influence and support

Zelensky’s message: Ukraine has something the world needs.
Now it’s using that leverage to strengthen alliances.
Read more. #Geopolitics #Security

As calls for diplomacy grow, one former intelligence official argues the roots of this conflict go back decades. Read the full piece. #ForeignPolicy #Security www.thecipherbrief.com/terror-in-iran

Millions of drones are coming to U.S. airspace.
But local authorities lack the tools and authority to manage them.
Read more. #Drones #NationalSecurity www.thecipherbrief.com/american-drones

Geopolitics is driving markets today, from Middle East tensions to shifting trade signals.

Catch the latest risks and opportunities in today’s OSR. www.thecipherbrief.com/report/global-intelligen...

While the World Watches the Middle East, War Is Brewing in South Asia OPINION — For decades, strategists have warned that the most dangerous flashpoint in South Asia lies between India and Pakistan. The reasoning appeared straightforward: two nuclear-armed rivals with a long history of crises and wars. That perception only hardened last year when the two countries exc

Why the Pakistan–Afghanistan conflict is the crisis policymakers aren’t paying enough attention to. Read the full analysis by Siddhant Kishore.

Global Intelligence Report for Thursday, March 19, 2026

Global Intelligence Report for Thursday, March 19, 2026. Check out the top stories.

Weakened, fragmented, but still dangerous. Iran’s regional network is shifting as groups balance survival, politics, and militancy. www.thecipherbrief.com/irans-axis-of-resistance

What if analysts could search the globe with a sentence from an intelligence report? A new proposal argues that a multi-modal GEOINT foundation model could transform how the U.S. detects threats and understands the world. www.thecipherbrief.com/multi-modal-foundation-m...

“Digital Dominance” may be the key to future national power. Experts say the U.S. must rethink how it defends itself and operates in cyberspace.
Read more. #Technology #Security #AI www.thecipherbrief.com/america-is-digitally-fra...

At the Center of the World’s Most Dangerous Chokepoint As threats mount in the Strait of Hormuz and oil markets react, former Iran intelligence chief Norm Roule breaks down the military, economic and strategic risks ahead

What happens if Iran continues to threaten shipping through the Strait of Hormuz? Norm Roule explains the coalition challenge, the military risks, and why the waterway matters to the global economy.

Global Intelligence Report for Monday, March 16, 2026

Global Intelligence Report for Monday, March 16, 2026